Already, some positive effects

A woman and little girl with a copy of the fatwa, condemning female genital mutilation. Das

At the follow-up conference in Addis Ababa, 120 imams ordered 100,000 copies in the first half hour alone. In Mauritania, where some three million people live in an area three times the size of Germany, 1,200 books have been distributed already, to imams, Islamic schools and scholars.

Three thousand copies are currently being brought into circulation in Djibouti; 50,000 in Ethiopia. Distribution will soon follow in Mali, Sudan, Somaliland and Chad; getting the book out in some countries, like Etrirea and Somalia, will be difficult from a security point of view.

Some positive effects have already been reported. In a town at the edge of the Danakil desert, practitioners of female genital mutilation have up their work and instead undergone training to become midwives. In the town of Barahle, 60 mothers swore by Allah not to have their daughter mutilated.

To achieve sustained abolition of the practice it is also important to bring the imams, heads of clans and mayors on board, too. Because in the societies where the practice in widespread, uncut women are generally considered unclean and not fit to be married – which then makes them unable to support their parents in old age. This will only change when those in power really start laying down the law.